3. He Would've Brought an Emotional Continuity to the Franchise
When Tracy dies at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, it should've led in to an emotionally powerful revenge story. If Lazenby had stayed on, the next film, Diamonds are Forever (1971), might've been the Licence to Kill (1989) or Quantum of Solace (2008) of its era, with Bond struggling with the death of his wife and wanting revenge against Blofeld. Sadly, When Connery was brought back for Diamonds are Forever, the film only had the vaguest connections with On Her Majesty's Secret Service. At the beginning of the film Bond believes he has killed Blofeld (Charles Gray) but that man was just a look-alike and the evil mastermind returns. The confrontations between Bond and Blofeld in this film lack any emotional impact or any acknowledgement that Blofeld killed Bond's wife. It doesn't help that two different actors are playing Bond and Blofeld in this film. Diamonds are Forever basically takes the humanity and more grounded reality of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and throws it out the window, becoming one of the goofier entries in the franchise. The loss of Tracy could've been what defined Lazenby's tenure as Bond- throughout the Lazenby films, we could see Bond attempting to move on from Tracy's death and return to his former self. It would've provided a nice arc for Bond across three films, similar to Daniel Craig's "origin story" trilogy.